The story of Mix takes place in the very same high school as Touch, but much of the story takes place about thirty years later. It is regarded to be a semi-sequel to the touch series, and focuses its attention on two young brothers and their passion for the game of baseball. In Mix, the two step brothers Touma and Souichirou, are now on a very similar path as the one from Touch to obtain the very same championship title that made Meisei a household name, and to learn more about the sports history of the school itself. For those unfamiliar with Adachi’s works, he has a very strong liking towards baseball and its roots. Many of his classics such as the ones we’re focusing on, place a lot of emphasis on family, building strong trust and familiarity with others, and creating long lasting friendships. Mix is a wonderful example of all of these mixed in together to create a very satisfying feeling as you read more into the story and learn of these two step brothers. Their passion for baseball was rooted in them from a young age, as the two would always compete to see who the better pitcher was, and Touma eventually comes out on top. Souichirou instead focuses his attention on being the protective big brother to Touma, to ensure that he continues to follow his dreams to becoming an ace pitcher, and also his love for Haruna. We follow the pair as they learn to cope with their past tragedies in the family, strengthen their skills for the game which they loved, and eventually end up creating a romantic relationship along the way.

Satoyama Katsuki considers himself to be very lazy at times, but more or less carefree in his endeavors. Behind this lazy exterior lies a secret that he can’t seem to express, and it’s that Katsuki has a crush on a young girl who shares his name. Her name is Mizutani Katsuki and her father was once a well known professional boxer, from which she found great interest in after watching him fight. After learning of this truth, Katsuki conjures up this idea that perhaps to win over her heart, he would need to turn to boxing to grab her attention. He decides to join a boxing gym in hopes that it would turn things around and give him bonus points, but what Satoyama didn’t even realize was that he had the fighting spirit in him all along. Adachi really loves his sports and Katsu! is just another one of his greatest achievements that demonstrates Adachi’s ingenuity. Katsu! takes bits and pieces from various boxing classics such as Burning Blood and the very popular Hajime no Ippo, and creates a romantic tale of a young man trying to win in the ring, as well as win the girl he admires most. This infatuation leads Katsuki in many directions as he comes to realize that his boxing skills are a gift, and all he needs to do is place all of his focus on the sport to achieve greatness. It’s a wonderful story because without the love for Mizutani, Katsuki would’ve never come to understand his true potential as a boxer and take the main stage much like her father. You’re constantly inspired by this young prodigy because over time you notice how his natural talent just spews out of him, and Mizutani has no other choice but to be impressed by his incredible ability to learn so quickly. If boxing is a sport which you enjoy and love a very endearing romantic relationship which leads to very exciting outcomes, then give Katsu! a shot.

Hiro and his close friend Hideo had a great passion for the game of baseball until one unfortunate event left Hiro’s arm permanently damaged, preventing him from living his dream. Mentally broken from the diagnosis, Hiro searches for a school that has no baseball team as it would create torment and total resentment from the sport. Fortunately for Hiro the spirits above were watching, as it turns out the doctor who provided the diagnosis was a complete fraud, and his arm wasn’t permanently damaged at all. After hearing of this startling truth, his soul is revitalized and his dream to play on the field is reborn once again but only this time, Hiro wants to confront his very best friend Hideo in the Koshien, the premier league for Japanese baseball. Adachi uses very powerful storytelling to emphasize the importance of how sports can have a great impact on one's life growing up, but also, how love can provide that extra leverage that is needed to take your skills to the next level. The real battle isn’t on the baseball field as one would expect, but much of it revolves around a love triangle between Hiro, Hideo, and Hideo’s girlfriend. You get to see a better glimpse of just how imperfect these young individuals are, and how organic everything feels when reading through each chapter. The characterization is very wistful because it tries to remind the reader that their skills are never justified on the basis of some unfathomable power or god like ability, but rather that it all comes from a deep rooted passion for the game. Each match is full of suspense as you’re never too sure how it’ll end, and whether you want to root for Hideo or Hiro. Overall, at an enormous 34 volumes, H2 is sure to provide nothing short of remarkable entertainment for any fan of baseball or Adachi’s work.

By now you’ve probably realized that Adachi’s love for baseball is unprecedented, and that he really knows how to combine slice of life with sports exceptionally well. The story of Touch looks at the life of two young brothers who eventually take their team to the premier league of Japanese baseball. Tatsuya and Kazuya both have a love for baseball and all they wanted to do was to ensure a spot in the Koshien, and perhaps take Meisei High School to the championships. Adachi’s added touch of romantic encounters in his works always seem to blend exceptionally well with the entire story, which is why his manga reaches out to any gender or age group. Tatsuya and Kazuya grew up with Minami, and the three of them created a strong bond over time, which spawned into something more as the story progresses. Kazuya is the highlight of the show while Tatsuya is a lot like Souichirou from Mix, who spends most of his time supporting his younger sibling to ensure his success and achieve the dreams he set out for himself. Much to our surprise, it is actually Tatsuya who is the one to focus on later in the story, but to prevent any spoilers we shall leave it at that. One thing to point out is that despite having a strong knack for expressing romance in his manga, in terms of physical expression, Adachi uses a very unique approach by allowing the reader to try and visualize what’s going through each character's minds. He weaves in very important points about life that really tie in well with baseball, with lots of plot twists to keep the action consistent. It’s most certainly a must read for anyone, and we recommend picking up both Touch and Mix to really truly understand the whole flow of the story.

Kou Kitamura’s family runs their own sporting goods store which is always visited by the Tsukishima family, who own a batting center. Due to their close relationship, Kou is almost always at the batting cage working away at improving his skills to become a professional batter. Unfortunately, he lacks sufficient knowledge about baseball outside of batting. In contrast to Aoba, one of the Tsukishima daughters is quite adept at the game being a pitcher and hitter. Wakaba, one of the four daughters, falls in love with Kou and intends to marry him when they’ve grown up. Unfortunately that dream would come to a tragic end. The tragedy leaves both families crushed and Kou’s mental state in shambles. Fast forward several years later, after the events, and Kou has lost his passion for the game of baseball and since then, has never played. After coming to terms with everything he slowly returns to the field but with a new vision and talent that perhaps not many are expecting in this dramatic game of love and baseball. There’s just something so special about how Adachi is able to create such a unified bond between all of his characters, and pull at your heartstrings at every opportunity. It’s very clear that he tries to emphasize the sheer importance that sports can really express the truths about life and our growth, and it really hits you in Cross Game. It looks at relationships pertaining to family, friends, and the struggles we all must go through in the course of our lives while throwing baseball in for good measure. While the premise of the series did place itself around playing baseball, it was the powerful relationship that Aoba, Wakaba, and Kou had which kept your heart racing well into the later chapters. You’d laugh at how jealous Aoba would get because Wakaba and Kou had this free flowing relationship, and she wanted a piece of that. Everything is placed in random locations, and yet, it all comes together to create this beautiful landscape of drama, and passion much like you’d find in a Japanese Zen garden. Whether you like baseball or not is up to you, but what truly sells Cross Game isn’t in the love for the sport, it’s the everlasting love for human embrace and connectedness.

Katekyo Hitman Reborn follows Tsunayoshi Sawada as he’s trained to become the ninth boss of a mobster family. One of the people judging the performance of the main cast of characters is Alaude, one of the First Guardians for the Vongola Family. Now Alaude was specifically the first boss’s Cloud Guardian and also acted as the head of a secret intelligence agency. These positions were not given to him by luck or accident. He’s a strong and stoic man, considered the strongest of the First Guardians, who followed a specific style of justice, which relied more on restraining the enemies. This is why his preferred weapon is a set of handcuffs.

Panty and Stocking follows the Anarchy Sisters who were booted from heaven. Now, taking down the ghosts that terrorize Daten City, the two fallen angels are trying to collect enough Heaven Coins to get back to heaven. One of the ghosts they face up against in this series is Oscar H. Genius. Oscar H. Genius, also known as Ugly Snot, is one of the few ghosts powerful enough to take human form. He took form when one unlucky human being happened to die after tripping on a discarded booger. Now that’s an embarrassing way to go and a surefire way to die with regrets. As a vengeful ghosts, Oscar H. Genius constructs a nasal masturbation fetish throughout Daten City. In other words, he got people really into picking their noses and hoped he could make them do it enough that they would die from dehydration. That’s one very particular way to haunt the living world.

Hayate Ayasaki is one of the unluckiest people alive. He was abandoned by his parents and sold to the yakuza to pay off a 150-million yen debt at a very young age. Well, even when he’s ____, his horrible luck continues as he has to deal with the strange oddities that accompany the work of a butler. One such out-of-this-world situation that he must handle is the relationship with a perverted ghost. Linn Regiostar, who’s name before the dubbed version was Linn Regiostar, was the father of the Church of Alexander Mark and is now a ghost who enjoys pestering Hayate on a constant basis. One of his more enjoyable hobbies is planting unwanted sexual thoughts into Hayate’s mind. His other main hobby is RPGs and it’s pretty clear that the mangaka wanted to give a shout out to some personal favorites through the narrative of Rean, who has an extreme love for the Dragon Quest series.

Natsuyuki Rendezvous follows the way that a very unique love triangle unfolds. It’s extremely particular because one of the members involved in this triangle is a ghost, and he isn’t too thrilled with the other guy creeping in on his wife. Atsushi Shimao is the late husband of Rocca, and he’s been watching her daily over the past three years since he’s departed. This makes it quite obvious as to how much the man loves his wife and just how caring he was/is towards her. However, jealousy does tend to rear its face when Rocky starts getting closer to Rocca, and things get a tad bit creepy when Atsushi possesses Rocky’s body.

Ginban Kaleidoscope focuses on the relationship between the ghost Pete Pumps and the living girl Tazusa, as Pete resides within her body. You see, Pete was a 16-year-old stunt pilot who died, and apparently needs to wait 100 days before ascending. Thus, he makes a home for himself in a currently living and potential Olympic figure skater, Tazusa. Yeah, it’s a bit of a creepy situation, and it probably doesn’t make Tazusa feel anymore comfortable that Pete is clearly interested in her from the beginning. However, he’s able to make her fall for him by constantly pushing her to become a better skater and overall person. He helps her with media attention and performances to the point that her dreams are actually coming true.

Shaman King follows a host of shamans, those who can control ghosts and spirits, as they begin the Shaman Fight, a tournament held every 500 years to decide who solely gets to contact the Great Spirit. One of the main contestants in this tournament is You Asakura and his faithful partner ghost, Amidamaru. Amidamaru is an extremely powerful ghost who takes You to the top of the competition. When we meet him, he comes off as a very serious individual who is extremely devoted his companion. As a human, he was training to be a samurai in order to protect the orphans he lived among, and he never went against his code of honor. This code of honor, which holds friendship to the highest degree, is actually what got him killed as he decided to save his best friend’s life instead of following his daimyo’s command.

Fate/Zero follows the events of the Fourth Holy Grail War, which happens to be, canonically, the bloodiest of the Holy Grail Wars. Though the main protagonist is Emiya Kiritsugu, the show closely depicts the struggles and ideologies of each character, forcing us to see just how cruel and unbiased death can be. It also made the entire cast extremely memorable, but one character in particular struck everyone’s heart: Rider. The role of the Rider class in Fate/Zero was filled by the Greek hero Alexander the Great. During his first appearance, you’re not just stunned by his physical presence, but by his almost childish demeanor. In other words, upon arriving in our world, he seems more interested in learning about today’s culture more than fighting the war. It is true that this man wants to live this current reappearance in reality to its upmost, but he is also a very serious and considerate warrior. Everything he does is to instill his young master with important life principles as well as encourage others to grasp life to its fullest. He fully believes that the role of hero is something to aspire to, and even if you don’t agree with his arguments of a king’s role, you still find yourself truly engaged with the character.

The story of Punch Line throws us into a world of superpowers and super destruction. At the center of it all is Yuuta Iridatsu, who’s soul separates from its physical body when seeing a girl’s panties once. When he sees two panties, then a meteor hits Earth. Now Yuuta’s backstory is quite a complicated one. [SPOILER] Yuuta’s body is that of a girl, but the soul of a boy (Pine) has been switched into her body. This was due to an incident that occurred while they were trying to escape from a lab that was performing experiments on them. On a day-to-day basis, Yuuta is a pretty normal teen. He goes with the flow, is a little lazy, and gets really embarrassed when seeing a girl’s panties. However, he has shown himself to be quite emotional when a friend is in danger and willing to risk getting hurt.

Noragami Aragoto intensely follows the relationships between Bishamon and her host of Regalia that stay within her shrine/mansion. Though, we still see our beloved Yato and Yuki throughout the series, Studio Bones clearly wanted us viewers to see the struggles and tribulations of being a high-ranked god and having a ton of Regalia. Kazuma is the leader of Bishamon’s Regalia (an exemplar), both on and off the field of battle. He is precise, careful, thoughtful, and incredibly powerful. He is also a man of his word and willing to protect those who have lent a helping hand in the past, even if it means tricking his goddess. We see this a couple times while Bishamon chases down Yato. Though many see him simply as a tactician, [SPOILER] he lays down the law on Takemikazuchi’s most powerful Regalia, the one that is known as the Thunder Blade.

Hikaru no Go throws viewers into the world of competitive Go, as we follow Hikaru Shindo, under the guidance of Fujiwara no Sai, into competition after competition. The one thing to understand about this show is that Fujiwara no Sai is a spirit from the Heian era of Japan and now resides within Hikaru. In his original life, Sai was the mentor of Hikaru Shindo and played Go constantly in order to play what he would consider the “divine move”. Now living vicariously through Hikaru, he is still searching for that move as he challenge’s the world’s best players through Go. As a Go player, Sai is clearly one of the best, able to take upon just about any player in any time period. As a human, he is kind, compassionate, emotional, and patient. He’s a great mentor to anyone he plays Go with and cares deeply about those he has a relationship with.